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Future | Change poles

Sep

11

2013

Земля

The history of the Earth remembers a lot of cases where the poles are reversed. At present, Earth’s magnetic field is weakening, and the magnetic poles are shifted considerably from year to year. In the near future we can expect a change of the poles. Land , like many other things, is a giant magnet. As with other magnets, the Earth has a north and south magnetic poles (which are close enough to the north and south poles, geographically defined by the axis of rotation of the planet) and a magnetic field that passes between them. This field wraps the entire Earth.

You know it looks like Earth’s magnetic field – a forest of lines grows from one pole in a curve across the sky and enters the land on the other pole. Earth’s magnetic field is responsible for some interesting things. It employs compasses as a compass needle is always directed in the same direction – the direction of lines of force. In fact, all the birds have built nanokompasami. The magnetic field interacts with the solar wind, which consists mainly of fast-moving electrons and protons emitted by the Sun. Interaction generates colored lights that appear in the sky at the north and south poles, and are known as the northern and southern lights.

When north becomes south

Over the past 4.5 billion years was replaced by a magnetic field thousands of times. When you change something that was magnetic north becomes magnetic south pole, and vice versa. It happens not at regular intervals, it is worth noting. At various times, the magnetic field can be stable for millions of years, and sometimes for much shorter periods of tens of thousands of years. The last change took place 780,000 years ago. The field is also changing with the times: the magnetic pole crawling on the earth’s surface. For example, the magnetic north pole has shifted from Canada toward Siberia at 40 miles per year for the past several decades.

Currently field also decreases. When the field gets too weak, it is believed that the Earth is likely to appear a number of weak local magnetic fields with their own poles in different places. Attenuation can be a sign of impending change, so it is possible that it will happen “soon” (that is, in the next thousand or ten thousand years). Field is replaced by the pole, sooner or later. What happens when that moment comes? Well, a variety of environmental destruction do not seem to have been caused by changes of the past. The magnetic field protects the Earth from high-energy particles in the solar wind, but the local magnetic fields that exist at the time of the change of the base field can be strong enough to cope on their own. Even without a field quite atmosphere forms a protective blanket, which would be enough to stop the solar wind. Civilizations do not come to an end. Is that compasses stop working properly – well, from this little losers. But GPS-navigation will work with a bang, as it uses satellites rather than Earth’s magnetic field to determine the location.

However, if you have a compass in your car or just a pocket compass, which you use to travel, you have a couple of thousand years left to go to the GPS. Do not rush.

Do migratory birds have internal compasses. They will need some time to adapt, so the change of the poles will be a serious problem for them. Radiance will become smaller, dimmer and less impressive, but they have a chance to happen elsewhere in the world – because of local magnetic fields. After the pole shift everything back to normal.

What else will happen? Tiny magnetic particles on the ocean floor will head in the other direction. The theory that the ocean floor is moving out of the region in which the material is born the ocean floor (of rising magma inside the Earth), which slowly moves the continents in this process was confirmed by observations of these particles. In the area near the exit magma particles in the same direction, but if any check on the bottom, the particles are disposed in the opposite direction as when the zone is formed, the magnetic field is different from that which is now present. Even further – and again a coup for the same reason. In everyday life, it is certainly not irrelevant, but makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how the Earth.

In any case, do not worry. If you’ve never seen the northern lights, think about how to go back to where they occur. The best places for spectators are within the Arctic and Antarctic polar circles. More likely to see the light into a solar storm.

If you have a compass, do not rush to throw it away. This technology still serve you. After all, the compass, unlike GPS, never sit battery – for the simple reason that it have no compass. Always handy.

What else awaits us in the future? Programmable genome and change the memory of man, but it’s already in the field of biology.
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Tags: future , the Earth , the Pole .